New Year's Eve

Yesterday was our anniversary - 31 years! We went to ROTK and then out for dinner. I loved the movie, but it reinforced my preference for watching movies at home. The sound was SO LOUD that even my husband thought it was too loud. (if you were a fly on the wall in my house you would know why that is a good indicator of loud noises!) Even the volume level couldn't deter from the beauty of the film. I loved the close-ups of the clothing. The green shawls were beautiful and Gandalf's white cape was gorgeous, with a quilted undercape. I don't know the weave structure, but it was breathtaking.

I've been playing with my new electric bobbin winder. I think I'll be using one of my leather garden gloves when I'm winding fine threads. Let me tell you that thing rocks. After a little fiddling I got the feel for how much pressure I needed for different speeds. I'm about half way through a scarf for Laura. It's a mohair/acrylic blend from WEBS that I picked up at Stitches last year - one's a variegated peach and the warp is variegated brown.

Usually I'm grumpy on New Year's Eve because I didn't get enough done over the vacation, but this year I've got an additional three days. Yippee!

Just Give Me A Little Time..

No, not the song, although it does bring back memories. Seems like this vacation thing could really grow on me. However I realize now that spinning ALL day may not be the best thing. Ouch!

I spent yesterday at spinning group, last evening, and most of today spinning up the springiest chocolate brown romney/merino cross that I bought from Humble Hills several years ago. Then I spun a small amount of the border leicester/mohair multi-colored bump I bought at Creative Strands. I'm going to ply my sample with the brown and see what happens. I want something for the shoulders but I don't want it to really stand out. I'm planning on this sweater being one that I can keep in my closet at school and put on when needed, so it needs to be rather neutral.

Bead Lemming!

Yes, Claudia, I'm back with another entry! I forgot to mention my beading presents - I was waiting for the sun to come up so I could take a picture.



Sarah gave me a set of tools and some stuff to get me started. I'm not sure what everything is. I know that there are earring wires, spacers, and wire. I don't know what the things that look like big straight pins are, but I'm planning to find out. I've got a few magazines, any ideas on a good beginner's book? Hopefully Dodie will be at tomorrow's spinning group so we can plan a visit to her bead store.

What to pick up next? (ha! you think I'm going to finish anything?) My new Oxford punch needle is calling me, along with the needlefelting tools I bought last May at MDS&W. I don't think this vacation is going to be long enough!

Phew!

It was a three day family celebration, but I made it! My extended family has been celebrating on the 26th for the last 17 years, since my brother found it difficult to travel on Christmas Day. My sisters and I live within a few miles of my mother, so one, if not all of us, have also had dinner with her. My nephew married in October and he and his wife had an open house Christmas Eve.

Now that our children are older it's been increasingly difficult to schedule this day-after celebration (what with work schedules, etc) so we've decided to consider alternatives - but we put it off to our Memorial Day picnic so we'd have time to figure it out. My family is so functional!

I got some nice fiber gifts. An electric bobbin winder from Robin & Russ, along with some inserted eye wire heddles, some repair heddles, and these really cool flexible metal strips for adding and removing heddles. They have one of those brass spreading clips at each end so that you can slide on heddles and transfer them safely. I don't know if I was blogging when I went through the fiasco of moving heddles in the middle of a project - not something I'd ever like to relive.

I also got a gift certificate for The Mannings. If the weather is as nice as it's supposed to be early in the week, I may just take a drive. Why waste it on postage when I can go pick it out myself??

Now for a cup of coffee and the real start to my vacation! I'm up earlier than I usually am in anticipation of an all fiber day, oh, and spinning group tomorrow.

Happy Holidays

Spinning Chair

I've been mulling over this for a few months and today I took my saw to an old chair I had in the basement. Voila! A spinning chair. I could tell you I'm going to sand the raw edges on the chair back, but unless I do damage to myself or my fibers you can be rest assured that I'll just put it off. I am going to cover some 1" foam to make a seat pad and make a small rectangular pillow to put behind me. It was so comfortable. A nice wide seat to accomodate mine and the ability to pull back without contorting AND still having some support for my back adds up to a winner.

Now off for an appearance at my nephew's then back home to wrap a few presents and drink some eggnog.

Tackling that UFO Hall of Shame

As you might know, back in Sept. 2002 Claudia threw down the gauntlet and invited everyone to share their UFO's. I dutifully complied (see Sept. 16th entry) and came up with a huge list. Now just a measily 15 months later I've taken another look and noticed that I actually have finished some things.

My biggest (and smallest) accomplishment is that I've finally finished a pair of socks. I think it was the switch to 1's that did me in. I made dozens of bulkier socks, the smallest needle size was 3. Tonight I finally finished the Regia socks.

I also took apart that alpaca sweater and made it into a Pi Shawl and finished the autumn colored handspun. I took the Coup d'Etat cardigan to school and finished the first sleeve in study hall. Who knows, maybe I can finish the sage mohair and the Bendigo cardigan this week (yeah, right!)

Yippee!

In 9 hours I will be home for 11 glorious days. Now let's go see how many students actually show up today......

Something New

Whenever I'm overwhelmed with work I feel the need to start something new. In keeping with that I started a new cardigan today. I'm going for something thick and cozy. This was my swatch and the gauge was good enough that I kept going on the sleeve. The reds are not as bright as the picture and the green is really a forest green. Can't figure out why the colors aren't true as I took it in direct sunlight. I'm not sure what I want to do with the ribbing, so I used a provisional cast-on. Here's what I've got done so far.

The plan (at least for now!) is to keep going with green for the rest of the sleeve. Use the same combinations for the body, but instead of 3, 4, and 5 row peeries I'll use a couple of 13 row borders too. When I put the body and sleeves together I'll repeat the patterns in the yoke. After pouring through books the last few days I ended up using graphs from Starmore's article in Threads. I was really inspired by the graphs in Zilboorg's Fancy Feet too. I hadn't picked that one up in ages. I really think it's the planning process that I need when I'm stressed. Everything is in the realm of possibilities and you get so caught up in colors and patterns that you can forget 150 students - oh, crap, I just reminded myself - better get back to work!

New Project

Whenever I'm overwhelmed with work I feel the need to start something new. In keeping with that I started a new cardigan today. I'm going for something thick and cozy. This was my swatch and the gauge was good enough that I kept going on the sleeve. The reds are not as bright as the picture and the green is really a forest green. Can't figure out why the colors aren't true as I took it in direct sunlight. I'm not sure what I want to do with the ribbing, so I used a provisional cast-on. Here's what I've got done so far.

Here's the plan (at least for now!) - keep going with green for the rest of the sleeve. Use the same combinations but instead of 3, 4, and 5 row peeries I'll use a couple of 13 row borders too. After pouring through books I ended up using graphs from Starmore's article in Threads. I was really inspired by the graphs in Zilboorg's sock book too. I hadn't picked that one up in ages.

Stuck in Brown

I finished the brown handspun a few days ago, but I'm not sure if it's too short. I don't think it is, but it's just shorter than I usually wear. Maybe I'll wear it for a day and see how I feel. I could always rip out the bottom and add a longer garter stitch hem or put in 3" of ribbing like I have at the cuffs.

I'm trying to finish a hat that I'm making for my nephew out of 50/50 brown corriedale and greyish mohair. I want to have it in the mail by Tuesday. If I send it Priority mail it should get to Iowa on Friday. That's when we're having our extended family gift-giving party so it won't technically be late. Stephan wasn't able to come back this Christmas, but at least I got to see him at his brother's wedding in October. I know I'll get the hat done tonight, but what are my chances of making a quick scarf by Tuesday???

As you can imagine the kids are hyped to the max at school. They did get together and decorate the homeroom door this year, although I worried that conflicting artistic ideas were going to end in fisticuffs

Finished another one

I finished another handspun sweater yesterday - well, my interpretation of finished (which means I still have the side seams to sew up)! My camera is in Florida with Josh, he's at the Eagles/Dolphins game as I type, so pictures will have to wait. Hopefully I'll be able to sew it up and block it tomorrow night. I just got home - I'm taking a Vegas class (tonight and Wed) and the thought of focusing on those seams doesn't sound too inviting.

Snow Day (sort of)

The snow started on my way to school yesterday. The kids (those that showed up) were so wound up that we couldn't get anything done. We ended up with an early dismissal at 12:50. After tapdancing all day to keep the kids entertained, I plopped in a chair and knitted.

This morning I got up at 5:15 (why do I even bother to turn off the alarm on Friday night?) and started dyeing. The sea blue (teal, aquamarine, whatever) on the top rungs is the 2 lbs of corriedale I finished a few months ago. I used one package of Dark Green Cushings and 2 tsps. turqoise Sabraset. It was still a little too bright so I glubbed in some navy Sabraset I had leftover. This is going to be a hooded sweatshirt type pullover.

The dark plum on the bottom is one pound of the Cardinal Red romney I dyed last December. I did two pounds before I realized that using equal weights and equal dye doesn't necessarily mean the same shade :-) I used the same dyepot from the corriedale and just added more navy. After mixing with the red already in there it turned a really deep plum.

In the middle is another pound of the same romney. I used the Dark Green Cushings for that too. The red, plum, and green are going to be a heavy barn sweater. I'm mulling around ideas for borders, probably zig zags or some other geometric design going around the bottom of the body and sleeves.

While the dye was cooking I was able to wind a 4 yard warp for a scarf for Laura. I used the mohair/acrylic blend that I bought from WEBS during Stitches last year (2002). I threaded a point twill and got about 4 inches woven. Now, back to my chair, my knitting, and a drink!

Fun Little Tool

I remembered this nifty little tool I bookedmarked this summer. Although it's not really for acid dyes, I think it will give me a good starting point for mixing. I'm thinking about a teal or sea green so I think I'll start with 2:2:1 mix of royal blue 483, turquoise 480, and yellow 180 (Sabraset numbers). Maybe we'll have a snow day tomorrow (wishful thinking mode)

Ta Da!

I finished my first handspun sweater. I bought the fiber from the Woodchuck's wife (don't remember if she had a business name, but she sold fiber in his booth at MDS&W for a couple of years). It was so loud in the bag that I don't think I would have even considered it without seeing the sample she had knitted up. I had only been spinning for a year or two, so I didn't realize how much the colors mute and blend when they are spun and plied.

It's a little big through the shoulders, but overall I'm happy with it. I'm also psyched that I figured out how to take my own picture. Using the self-timer and putting the camera on top of my monitor is just the ticket. Of course, now I'll have to remember to close the closet door behind me :-)